We have wanted to smoke some flour ever since we saw Evon from Malaysia using it in her breads that seemed always have interesting and unique combinations of ingredients. Why we haven’t gotten around to it till now is a mystery but it finally got to the top of Lucy’s formula list.

Trying to get our heads around what smoked flour might be like in bread is sort of like trying to understand our normal Wednesday routine. We always start out early in the morning building the SD levain for our usual Friday bake.

This usually takes about 9-10 hours but, before we get it going, Lucy has to decide what the bake will be so we can get the levain going in the right direction. We only use whole grains in the levain or the sifted out hard bits from a 78% extraction.

Sometimes, but not this time, these are the only whole grains in the mix so we feel it is best to get them wet for as long as possible. We usually do 3 progressively larger builds at 100% hydration that will eventually total around 20% of the total flour and water weight of the dough. We let it double after the 2nd build and than let it rise 25% after the 3rd feeding before refrigerating it for 24 hours.

On Wednesday we also grind any other whole grains that might be going into the dough flour, in this case 140 g of equal amounts of whole; spelt, barley and wheat. We also get any sprouts or scald going that might be in the bake on Friday. In this case, 100g of whole spelt berries were soaked for 3 hours before being spread out on wet paper towels and covered with more damp paper towels and plastic wrap so that they could chit in 30 hours.

On Thursday the rest of the ingredients are assembled mis en place and the autolyse started - in this case for 4 hours. We got some frozen prune soaking water out of the freezer for this bake to add to the left over spelt soaker water and water to make up the dough liquid. At the last minute we decided no to smoke the spelt berries since this bread was too expensive to do experiments that might ruin it.

The salt was sprinkled n top of the autolyse dough ball so we wouldn’t forget it. Then we got the levain put of the fridge to warm up and we stirred it down to give the wee beasties a little bit more to eat.

Both the autolyse and the levain went onto the heating pad. We thought that 81% hydration would be OK for this 58% whole grain bread once the wet Turkish figs fruits were folded into the final dough.

Once everything came together, less the spices, ground seeds, sprouts, nuts and figs we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 5, 2 and 1 minute each and 15 minutes apart. We followed them up with 3 sets of stretch and folds from the 4 compass points on 15 minute intervals. All the intervals were done on the heating pad.

Then we let it rest for 30 minutes before pre shaping and then shaping into a boule that was placed seam side up in a rice floured basket, bagged and placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.

This morning we checked the bagged boule and saw that it had proofed 84.7% in the fridge so we got it out to warm up as we fired up Big Old Betsy to 550 F. We readied the large Pyrex pan with lava rocks half full of water along with 1 of Sylvia’s steaming pans for extra mega steam.

Once Betsy beeped she was at temperature, we inserted both steamers and set the timer for 12 minutes which would allow the top and bottom stones to get to temperature and long enough for the steam to be billowing.

We un-mold the bread onto parchment paper on a peel, slash it twice, if you don’t count the first or last one, and slid it onto the bottom stone with the steam burning out face. To pay Betsy back for the face burn we threw a half cup of water onto her bottom out of spite and for extra immediate steam.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 500 F and 2 minutes later we turned it down to 475 F where it stayed until then steaming phase was done - at the 14 minute mark. We removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F with convection heat this time.

We rotated the bread 180 degrees every 8 minutes until it read 203 F on the inside when the oven was turned off and bread left on the stone till it hit 205 F and was removed to the cooling rack.

One is an orange and the other a Minneola but the Minneola is more orange than the orange!

The boule sprang, bloomed and blistered OK under the mega steam and browned well after the steam came out up. It took on that prune juice inspired beautiful mahogany color we love so much.

How did that smoked beef cheek get in there - unctuous is the word that fits.

We will have to wait on the crumb shots till after lunch. Well it si after lunch and crumb came out about as open as we suspected for such a high whole grains bread with tons of add ins. The crumb is soft and moist and the crust stayed a little crunchy. What we were not ready for was the fine flavor of this bread. It's nutty for sure, but the whole grains give it a deep flavor too. The sesame and flax seeds add to the nutrition while the aromatic fennel, anise, caraway and coriander are subtly there adding their fragrance. Then out of the blue, you get the sudden sweetness of the figs coming to the forefront when you bite into one. This is one hearty, healthy, nutritious and fine tasting bread. Lucy is pretty proud of herself even though she doesn't get any of this fine bread.

The winter wheat crop is starting to turn brown as the volunteer spring daisies are starting to bloom.

She works pretty hard to come up with something I might like to eat and being as difficult as possible to make :-) She has another winner on her paws. Glad you liked it. Hey, we got rain for the first time this year! Not much really but there were sprinkles in the pool when I got up.

not properlyt. I took some AP flour not long ago and hot smoked it at 225 F with some ribs but I can tell you that no one would put that flour in bread unless the name of the bread was 'House Fire Delight'. This time I was going to chit the spelt and smoke it as whole berries at 225 F instead of the flour but then i found out that you are supposed to cold smoke the whole berries at no more than 150 F so you don't kill off the enzymes you make by sprouting, .My smoker doesn't make any smoke below 200 F so I was stuck until can get some 140 F smoke somehow.

That beef cheek has to be about the best thing we have ever cured and smoked. I used pastrami cure on it for 4 days and then washed it off ans soaked the meat 3 times in cold fresh water for 30 minutes each. Instead of putting pastrami rub on it to smoke it I just left it plain Jane for smoking. It came out a cross between brisket pastrami and pulled pork the best of both meats and better than both too. That deep red color is mostly from the meat. That is the way it looked before it was cured .

I was going to mix it in small chunks with some ground smoked beef pastrami and smoked pork loin with some fresh beef and pork and smoke it as a fresh sausage but it was too good for that. But, this bread is just perfect for it :-)

what about putting it in oven, and lightly toasted it would it achieve the some effect?

By the way, what is a smoker? does it look like an oven? n smoking the beef cheek sounds really difficult!!! it takes so many days to have it prepared, but I am sure its well worth it. I can image the taste n smell right now. Im drooling just by looking at your meal.

A smoker is used to smoke meats at a low temperature by using hardwood chips soaked in water to create smoke. You can either cure the meat first like I did with the beef cheek or just use fresh meat and smoke it like BBQ ribs. There is no smoke created in the oven and you don't want to create any in there unless you want your whole house to smell like it is on fire. It is the smoked nit toasted flavor we are after.

The beef cheek cure and smoking is like making bread. A couple minutes of work and long periods ding nothing. You mix the dry cure and rub it on the meat then put it in the fridge covered for 3-4 days depending on how thick the meat is. Really thick pieces of meat require the cure to be injected into the meat for it to cure properly but that isn't necessary for the cheek meat. The you put it in the smoker at 225 F and smoke it,in this case with pecan, cherry, apple and hickory chips with a separate pan with water in it that evaporates to keep the meat moist - for 4-5 hours, It is very much like making SD bread from a do little and wait a long time process ...and the wait is so worth it. There is nothing like smoked meats and sausages - and the variety is endless.

I'm guessing smoked sprouted flour is just another unique flavor profile for bread.

Wow this is the first time I heard of a smoker. I only come across of smoked flesh that I come across is Salmon. I have heard people eat the Cure Salmon without smoking them, would it work with beef and other flesh?

Does different chips offer different flavor to the meat? Hope I can find a place that serve smoked flour bread.

salt and sugar and or smoking all kinds if stuff for very a long time to preserve food for later use. Eventually they combined some of these processes and today we have the pinnacle of the art - Smoked Salt :-)

My favorite is smoked home made sausages. Each culture has their own kind of smoked meats, Germans would be sausages but Italians have some great ones too. The Chinese have some fine smoked duck and cured and smoked duck sausages. Salt cod was the biggest export from the New World back to Europe for decades in the early years.

All kinds of dried, salted and or smoked fish were favorites of Native American Indians that lived in the East and West coasts too.

But the really fresh stuff can be eaten raw like sashimi and sushi, carpachio or with a light, short pickle like cevichi which also works for other meats besides fish.

Luckily most of this stuff needs to be eaten on something else and that something is ususally a kind of bread or cracker Another great reason to make bread is have some when you want to put something really good on it:-)

I do like sprouted grains but I'm not sure I will like smoked flour. I knowI don't like it ground and smoked at 225 F but wonlt know about cold smoking the berries at 140 F until Lucy can figure out a way to somehow do cold smoking with what we have.

Different woods impart different flavors. Texans like their brisket smoked with mesquite wood, in Kansas City MO we like pork smoked with hickory and oak, I like chicken smoked with apple wood and sausages, ribs and pastrami with a mix of cherry, pecan, hickory and apple.

if al;l you want to do is put them in some bread. It takes about 18 hours for rye and 24-30 for other grains to what they call 'Chitted' Where the little white sprout just barely pokes its way out of the hard shell of the grain and is ready to use

First you soak the grain in water for 4 hours - say 100g, Then you spread two layers of damp kitchen towel on a cutting board or plate. I just get them wet and squeeze out most of the water and carefully unfold them. Put the drained seeds on the paper towels and spread them out to one layer. then cover with two more damp paper towels and the cover in plastic wrap. For the other non rye grains I re-moisten the top layers of towels after 24 hours.

When you can see the white sprout just poking through the shell they are ready. Easy as pie! If you dry them in a food dehydrator at less than140 F then you can grind them and have sprouted flour or you can just toss them into bread whole un-dried like I usually do.

First, the bread looks fantastic and I love that color of both crumb and crust. Second, so you didn't smoke the flour or did I miss something? I've been wanting to smoke some flour for a while but never got around to it and with the never ending snow and cold over here in Antarctica...I mean New York I'm starting to wonder if I will get a chance.

Anyway, the inside of this one looks great with all those goodies packed inside and I could use some of those Minneola to battle the scurvy I'm starting to suffer from the long cold dark winter :)

Max and Lexie say hi to Lucy and are getting excited for the next snow storm tomorrow. They along with the school children and snow blower salesmen are the only ones looking forward to it.

is on tap for lunch with some Larrupin Swedish style Mustard and Dill Sauce and a mild Monterrey Jack melted cheese to top it off. Can't wait but first - breakfast toast! Glad you like the bread Josh. it is healthy, nuitritous and tasty.

and smoke some flour like it was a rack of ribs. Bark on flour is not a good thing - at least if you are planning on making bread with it:-) I can't cold smoke with my smoker but, as luck would have it, Masterbuilt smokers has a cold smoking attachment for it just waiting for me to buy! So chitting the berries, drying them and smoking them at the same time, under cold 150 F smoke and then grinding the flour is the way to go. I'm guessing you want to sift out the smoky hard bits too and just use the 78%.extraction flour or the smoke will be too much even that way

We got a tiny bit of rain this morning from the huge amounts of rain they got in LA yesterday - some places 5". Barely got the ground wet here so we hope for a lot more.

The crust on bread seems to go that beautiful mahogany color when a fruit juice is used for part of the liquid - like prune juice. The crumb is just as gorgeous with all the add ins doing there thing. But the taste is the best part - just delicious. You would like it Ian.

I'm not sure Lexi and Max will get the snow they hope for this time around. Lucy says hi and reminds them that Phoenix is a great place to spend New Years when it is cold and nasty in NY:-)

I had read a post by someone on another site where they smoked the flour at around 200 degrees. I can probably get my charcoal smoker to go down to around 165-170 without an issue so once the spring comes I'm going to give it a try for sure.

I just put my latest in the fridge. I mixed in some dark cocoa in the levain and the main dough along with some other goodies...hopefully this will come out half as good as yours!

Enjoy the warm weather adnd say hi to Lucy. P.S. was just watching a dog show and they did a feature on Lucy's breed. I didn't know the hot dog used to really be called the Dachshund Dog! They are too cute to eat!

that this sprouted flour miller dries their sprouted flour at 110F so not to kill the enzymes. I've always thought that 150F and below was OK and the enzymes die at 157 F so maybe a lower temperature 110 F cold smoke would be in order too? My have ti fry the berries in a dehydrator and then cold smoke them.

You can do a 'coldish' smoke by lining up charcoal in a single row, one leaning on the next. Light the first briquet and it will eventually light the next one and so on. Place wood chips on the tops of the briquets to generate the smoke. I do this in my Weber kettle and it works great, especially in the winter. Observe food safety rules if working with highly perishables.

She will have to stay up nights and study by the light of the moon to keep up this standard. Where to begin, oh my goodness...every picture was a delight to behold and the combination of goodies within the burnished crust of that bread must be wonderful! Thanks particularly for the sunset and the daisies, less than 10 degrees out there tonight and since I'm not going outside until Spring so it is good to know that it is really happening in your neck of the woods. The woods up here are still silent, dark and deep....

this bread , just like she does every bread........ sometimes you just have to slow her down a tad bit. But, this one has a little bit of everything she likes in SD bread; at least 50% whole multigrains, some fruit juice for the liquid, nuts and fruits galore, nutritious and aromatic seeds, malts and of course Toadies! Glad you like the bread Barb.

Here is pix of the cherry tomato in a pot and a bigger picture of the sunset. That should warm you up!

Khalid and a good looker inside and out too. You would like this one Khalid. It is earthy, healthy and delicious. You think after years of baking that I would have trained myself to keep the face away from the door when opening it but nnnnnooooo! I needed a dace resurfacing anyway and people pay big bucks for one at the spas around here - Betsy gave it to me for free:-)

you too will get that lacquered mahogany crust. It is very distinctive - and tasty. You are a busy man with little time for the baking Lucy and I get to do . Come to think of it, I don't remember getting much of a chance to do any home baking when I was working either:-) For some reason the birds don;t seem to eat the cheery tomatoes but it is all I can do to get regular tomato that isn't half eaten by those crafty devils.

I see you hven't lost your touch with the Tartine bread. Well Done and

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